Cong says Sept 7 hype wrong

The Congress on Sunday said September 7 had nothing to do with Vande mataram. “Due to some reason, a mistake was made and we admit it,” said party general secretary Janardan Dwivedi.

Without naming HRD Minister Arjun Singh, who pushed the proposal for commemorating 100 years of the national song, Dwivedi said the date chosen for the celebrations was incorrect.

He said it was former MP Shashi Bhushan’s idea to celebrate the song's centenary on September 7. But Bhushan said he never suggested a date. “I went not by the date but the year 1905,” he said.

Last month, the HRD Ministry issued a circular, asking all educational institutions to recite Vande mataram on September 7.

Later, the directive was turned into a recommendation in view of protests.

But the BJP made it mandatory to sing the song in states ruled by it. And it attacked Congress president Sonia Gandhi for not showing up at a Sewa Dal function to commemorate the national song. The Congress admission on Sunday came in the context of this criticism. So, why and how did September 7 come to be associated with the national song?

Historian Bipin Chandra said there was no historical record of the date on which vande mataram was written. The song first appeared in print in the late 1860s-- the year Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay serialized his novel Anand Math in a magazine. The story later appeared as a book. And song became popular during the swadeshi movement in 1905.